Mary Roach delves into obscure scientific research, some of it centuries old, to make 10 surprising claims about sexual climax, ranging from the bizarre to the hilarious.

Death, the afterlife, and now sex -- Mary Roach tackles the most pondered and least understood conundrums that have baffled humans for centuries. 

edical illustrator and animator David Bolinsky has devoted his career to displaying scientific and medical concepts in a clear, fresh light. 

Since the earliest days of computer animation, he knew this art could be a powerful tool for explaining scientific concepts in ways that traditional medical illustration simply couldn't. Now, with XVIVO, the company he co-founded, he works with schools and with medical and scientific firms, turning complex processes into understandable, compelling films.

"The Inner Life of a Cell," highlighted at TED2007, represents the leading edge of medical animation, in both its technical achievement and its focus on compelling, memorable action. Created as part of the BioVision initiative to help explain cellular processes to students atHarvard's Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology, the clip has captured the imagination of the press -- and reportedly, of Hollywood.

On any given day we're lied to from 10 to 200 times, and the clues to detect those lie can be subtle and counter-intuitive. Pamela Meyer, author of Liespotting, shows the manners and "hotspots" used by those trained to recognize deception -- and she argues honesty is a value worth preserving.

In a single year, there are 200-300 million cases of malaria and 50-100 million cases of dengue fever worldwide. in 2009, the Florida Keys suffered an outbreak of Dengue Fever, a fatal condition with flu-like symptoms, the first there since 1934.
A British biotech company called Oxitec thinks they have a solution to avoiding future outbreaks. They want to  genetically modify mosquitoes that would glow red when placed under a microscope, and carry a gene that causes new offspring to self-destruct.

Amos Winter and his team at MIT built a wheelchair that gives its user the ability to travel in all terrains like mud and sand all for under $200. The wheelchair is called the Leveraged Freedom Chair which uses levers to change the speed of the wheelchair like a mountain bike.

Throwing water bottles into the recycling bin doesn’t begin to address the massive quantity of postconsumer plastic that ends up in landfills and the ocean. Because it’s so difficult to separate the various kinds of plastics – up to 20 kinds per product – that make up our computers, cell phones, cars and home appliances, only a small fraction of plastics from complex waste streams are recycled, while the rest is tossed.Less than 10% of plastic trash is recycled -- compared to almost 90% of metals -- because of the massively complicated problem of finding and sorting the different kinds. 

Many of society’s most devastating diseases -- cancer, cardiovascular disease, diabetes and Alzheimer’s, to name a few -- share a common denominator: faulty angiogenesis, the body’s growth of new capillary blood vessels. Given excessive or insufficient blood vessel growth, serious health issues arise. While researching under Harvard surgeon Judah Folkman, who pioneered the study of angiogenesis, Li learned how angiogenesis-based medicine helps patients overcome numerous diseases by restoring the balance of blood-vessel growth.
 

Edry grew up in Paris, France, and has lived in Israel since 1989. He teaches Visual Communication at Shenkar College of Engineering and Design and is the author of several graphic novels. He is also the owner and founder of "Pushpin," a prep school for art and design.

Ronny Edry is a graphic designer, teacher, father and frequent Facebook updater. In March of 2012 one of his images garnered international attention. The image showed himself and his daughter, along with the words “Iranians, we will never bomb your country. We heart you.” The image became a catalyst for dialogue between the people of two nations on the brink of war.

Jim Al-Khalili OBE is a British scientist, author and broadcaster. He is a professor of Physics at the University of Surrey where he also holds a chair in the Public Engagement in Science. He is a vice president and trustee of the British Science Association and holds an EPSRC Senior Media Fellowship.